Brock Faber is out indefinitely for the Minnesota Wild after having surgery Sunday for a skull fracture sustained in a preseason game.
“We’ll follow the doctor’s leads (on a timeline),” general manager Bill Guerin said Tuesday.
The defenseman was injured in a 2-1 preseason loss to the Dallas Stars on Friday when he was hit in the head with a shot by Stars defenseman Miro Heiskanen at 10:24 of the second period.
Faber was down on the ice briefly before skating to the bench under his own power and returned for the next shift and played in the rest of the period. He did not return for the third period.
Faber, 24, is entering his fourth full season with the Wild. He had 51 points (15 goals, 36 assists) in 80 games last season, helping Minnesota reach the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
A member of the gold-medal winning Team USA at the 2026 Winter Olympics, Faber has 127 points (33 goals, 94 assists) in 242 NHL regular-season games.
He was going to start the season on one of the most dynamic defense pairs in the League, along with Quinn Hughes, but with no timetable for his return, it’s unclear when he will be back in the lineup.
“Brock’s a great player. He’s a big player for us. It’s always going to affect your team when guys like that are out,” Guerin said. “The biggest thing here is that he’s doing well. And sometimes you just have to put the hockey aside and worry about the human being. That’s what we’re doing here now.”
The Wild open the season at the Nashville Predators on Thursday (8 p.m. ET; MINNHL, Wild+, SCRIPPS)
NHL.com independent correspondent Heather Rule contributed to this report